WHERE DID THE STRANGE LEGEND ABOUT THE “ISOLATED ECONOMY OF THE USSR” COME FROM? In all sorts of “projects” and “plans for the future” that many have now started to write, a story invariably comes up about some new “USSR 2.0” - with closed borders, “production of everything in the world” (and what we can’t do ourselves is called “industrial espionage”). Grandfathers, they say, lived in the USSR behind the Iron Curtain, under “sanctions” and “cut off from the whole world,” and we will live.

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The special operation destroyed international relations in the form in which they had been built for decades. Why did this become possible in principle and is there a chance to restore relations between Russia and the West? This is a conversation with Pavel PALAZHCHENKO, a translator for top officials of the USSR, a diplomat and political analyst, and an employee of the Gorbachev Foundation.

A.K.M. It was a rehearsal for the funeral of Secretary General Chernenko. Seryozha, you were already free, right? How did this new life feel? Did you suspect that after some time you would come out of hiding and legally sell the Chronicle at Soyuzpechat kiosks? Was there such an assumption? Has it become obvious to you that cooperation with the new government is possible over these ten years? And this feeling arose among all dissidents, or... S.K.: No, of course, in no way.

The structure took 30 years to build and became the most effective weapon of the regime. It consists of several supporting elements: television, dictionary control, physical control. The most impactful link is the TV. It was called the zombie box even under early Putin, but it has not lost its function even now.

Kirill FOKIN, celebrating the New Year in Latvia, talks about whether we have the right to laugh, drink and kiss on this night On New Year's Eve 2017/18, military personnel who had just returned from Syria suddenly appeared on NTV. Their relatives reunited with them in the studio: and everyone told how proud they were of them, how they selflessly fulfilled their “duty to the Motherland.” And I was just reading “The Zinc Boys” by Svetlana Alexievich.

players are public figures, some of them do not lose popularity even after the end of their careers. The authorities classified individual leaders of public opinion, if not as enemies of the regime, then as unreliable long before the events of September 1922.

A.K.M. medicinal drugs, we had our own clinic. There was a period when I made money with my paintings, made clothes, gave master classes, it didn’t bring in a lot of money, but we lived quietly... Yes, until February 24, I just lived. Of course, I saw guys in our clinic who fought in Syria. Absolutely normal guys. Just no arms or legs. But we didn’t react either to Syria or to the conditional Tutsi - maybe that’s why we got punished? In February, I lay flat and sobbed.

THE MAIN PHENOMENA, EVENTS AND WORDS OF THE YEAR ARE EXPLAINED BY OUR JOURNALISTS A sledgehammer is a hand-held percussion instrument (a two-handed heavy hammer) designed for breaking stones. According to a video of unknown origin, distributed in mid-November, a sledgehammer was allegedly used for the extrajudicial execution of former Wagner PMC fighter Evgeniy Nuzhin who surrendered.

Report to readers: what the $103.5 million received from the Nobel Medal was spent on More than 15 million refugees have left Ukraine since February 24. The rate of increase in their numbers is higher than during World War II. The refugee crisis in 2022 is the largest since the 1940s. 90% of refugees, according to international organizations, are women and children. Some of those who left were later able to return.

PEOPLE CAN BECOME A CROWD INSTANTLY. IT TAKES YEARS TO RETURN THE WAY BACK "Novaya Gazeta" Friday. 38 No. 33 12/23/2022 TOWER A.K.M. “...Violence has been let off the leash. Straight and naked - there. Inverted, perverted, bottled - here. And this violence penetrates us. And the Estonian gatekeepers at the doors are also stewing in the brew of this almost limitless power over people. To let in or not to let in. To give protection or not to give.

WE ARE SOLD TO THE FUCKING DAMMIT FOR FIVE GENERATIONS AHEAD In the meantime, they are being led one by one to the Black River. Gradsky In the history of Russia, in the history of world literature, there are two deadly rivers. One is called Black, and the second is simply Second. * “We have been sold to the pockmarked devil for three generations in advance.” The pockmarked devil is Stalin. And “sold out for three generations ahead” is a prophecy from 1930. Author: Mandelstam. He was wrong.

HOW PROPAGANDA IS WORKED AND WHY IT REMAINS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WEAPON "Novaya Gazeta" Friday. 8 No.

Political prisoners are victims of targeted state pressure. People who did not resort to violence or call for it. People whose crime boils down to the manifestation of dissent. Among them there are those who became involved in cases under “political” articles, and there are those falsely accused of purely criminal, non-political crimes. These are very different people. Well-known and not at all public.

Christmas story All the problems of this world begin immediately after you are called by your name in it. If they call you a cow, you will have to give milk. By plane - hang around Domodedovo and Abakan. Titanic - to die, but with music. Rostislav - improve sales and get treatment for addictions. Ivan - ask the pikes for happiness. Isadora - to dance barefoot and hang out with drinking poets. This is how it has been and has been like this since the very beginning of time.